Corsairs of the Desert
by Nightheart
Summary: While everyone around them seems to have settled down, Vaan and Penelo lead a life of excitement and adventure as Sky Pirates but when the Queen of Dalmasca calls will loyalty bring and end to their endless happy days?


"Are you sure about this?" Penelo said, her voice laced with dubiousness. Hers was the voice of caution and reason, the little brain center of their two person crew that made sure that there was always food in thier little ships pantry and potions in thier supplies.

"Absolutely," Vaan said confidently. Of course, Vaan said everything confidently. Penelo often wondered if he'd ever get that density knocked out of him.

"I heard about it from Montblanc himself, and he wouldn't lie about something like this."

"Are you sure he's not just trying to fool you again?" Penelo argued. "Like that time with the three Bangaas out in the Naam-Yensa Sandsea?"

"That was just that one time, and he did apologize," Vaan said, a little defensively. "How else was he going to draw out those three guys anyway?"

Penelo sighed a little, looking doubtfully down at the crudely drawn map laid out on the little strategy/dining table in the main room behind their cockpit. There was a tiny red line drawn up through the Salika Wood, through the pass of the Necrohol of Nabudis into the Nabreaus Deadlands. Inside the Deadlands there was supposed to be a hidden pass that led to an ancient shrine to 'Kekhelgi the All-Seer'. Inside that shrine there was supposed to be an ancient artifact called the Mirror of Truth, which was (obviously) supposed to show if anyone was telling the truth or not.

"It says here that it's in a section called the Vale of Mist and Sorrow..." Vaan went on persuasively, jabbing a finger at the tiny little X on the map that marked thier supposed definition.

"Why do all of the names of the places in the Deadlands always seem so depressing?" she remarked, still studying the map. They'd have to set down on the wrong side of the Necrohol of Nabudis, according to this, for it would be imposible to come at the Deadlands from the other direction.

"Isn't there a way we could set down at the other end of the Necrohol? There's Soul Reavers there, and you know I don't like being without my magic!"

"I tried,"Vaan replied. "Remember that one time?"

"...oh yes..." She stood corrected. The ground on the other end of the Necrohol, leading to the Deadlands, was sodden and very unstable. They'd once gotten the Golden Bird mired up to its landing thrusters in swamp muck early on in the first solo-pirating days and had nearly had to call for help. It took some fancy flying and a lot of magic to win free, they had chalked it up to a learning experience.

"Do you know who set the mark?"

Vaan grinned widely, and Penelo recognized the grin from long familiarity; it was the look that said "And here's the part I've been saving".

"It's a special mark, posted privately, just for the two of us," Vaan said, his smirk growing wider.

Penelo gestured impatiently for him to get to the point.

"The person who posted it is calling herself Amalia," he hinted, his smile only getting wider.

"So what?" Penelo said impatiently, part of her surly tone caused by a very tiny twinge of jealousy that Vaan would be smiling about another girl.

"But you probably know her better as the Queen of Dalmasca."

"Queen Ashe?" Penelo said, taken aback. It was one thing to go on a quest to save the world with her highness, Princess Ashelia B'Nargan Dalmasca, it was something else entirely to be surruptiously summoned to Her Majesty's side for a secret quest via the moogle Montblanc.

"The very same," Vann said, looking smug. "Amalia was the name she used when she was in the resistance to keep her real identity a secret."

"It'll be good to see her again!" Penelo enthused, always happy to be reunited with a friend.

She'd kept contact via letters with all of the rag-tag old crew. Baltheir and Fran hardly ever wrote back (Baltheir wrote more often than Fran did, for the Veira had this taboo about using paper, because of the wood pulp Penelo imagined). "Gabranth" on occasion had a letter smuggled out via super secret courier or passed on through indirect channels so that his secert identity wouldn't be revealed, he seemed pleased with his new duties and his new leige. The young Emperor Larsa Solidor wrote on rare occasions, when he could get away from the paperwork and meetings that ran an empire; he too seemed pleased with the way things were going and encouraged her to write often to tell him of her adventures with Vaan as a sky pirate stating "it was the only taste of real freedom he got anymore".

"So we're going?" he asked eagrely. The two of them had the habit of discussing thier destinations (read Vaan pleading and pouting and cajoling her into doing what he wanted) before they took on a new mark or mission. A sky pirate, after all, was nothing without his first mate. Vaan was well aware that, while he was a good fighter and a better idea man, it was Penelo who took care of all the things that made thier little opperation run.

"Well we can't very well turn down a summons from Her Majesty can we?" Penelo said with a smile spreading across her face.

"Bad for business," Vaan supported, with an answering grin. "You know how touchy these royals can get."

"I'll just finish unloading from our last venture and visit the marketplace to stock up. Vaan don't forget to pay our fees this time."

"Yeah yeah, you're never gonna lemme live that down are you?" he grumbled, but his heart wasn't in it.

"They nearly confiscated the Bird and diassembled her to sell her off as spare parts," Penelo teased. "You're lucky I was able to charm that clerk in Nabradia into faking us some papers that had gotten "lost" and suddenly were "found" or we wouldn't be sky pirates anymore."

"If you're going shopping, let me come," Vaan said.

"You actually want to help out with the shopping?" Penelo asked, both eyebrows raised in surprise. Vaan hated shopping, he was always happy to turn that particular duty over to Penelo while he took care of arranging with the Moogles for repairs and upgrades of the Golden Gird. Then her look turned knowing-canny.

"What's in it for you?" she asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

She knew Vaan as easily as she knew herself, after growing up together and traveling together and saving the world together, knowing what he was thinking and feeling was, for her, like knowing what her left hand was doing. She didn't even consciously register all of his little cues anymore, like his facial expressions, his tone, the tilt of his shoulders... she just knew.

"I heard there's a new technik available at the shop here in Dalmasca, It's supposed to be a really good one," he said unrepentantly.

"I hope it's not like the last one," Penelo muttered. She'd shelled out one thousand gil for a new technik called "find" and all it did was locate loose change. Not very useful. It always seemed to giude them to the cushions of their couch.

"I'm sure it won't be," Vaan replied, making the pleading face at her. "I've heard rumors about it and I really really wanna try it, everyone says its great!"

Penelo was never one to turn away from something she could get advantage out of, her years of training as a shop-girl under Migelo, who was canny for a bangaa, had sharpened her mercenary barganing skills to a razor point.

"Fine, you can come," she said easily, but squelched his moment of triumph by adding. "But only if you agree to carry the basket."

"Aww," he protested. "But I always get teased when I carry the basket, Penelo. Everyone remarks on what a great housewife I make."

"Basket, or no technik," Penelo said firmly, trying not to laugh. Vaan was like an energetic puppy, he'd frisk around and run you into the ground if you'd let him.

"Okay," he said with an aggrieved sigh sounding very much put-upon. Still such a kid.

"Fresh fish!" one crier yelled out. "We catch 'em, you buy 'em!"

"Get'cher spices! Sugared dates! The fruits of forieghn lands brought here for you to enjoy!" another crier yelled out.

"Scents and oils here, finest in all the lands, scents from across the sands! Incense, perfumes, dyes we've got everything you need! Hey pretty lady, want to try a sample of our new rose-sandlewood, sure to make your husband crazy for you."

Penelo looked blankly at that last vendor and was about to protest that she wasn't married, but the fumerer was already starting in on Vaan.

"Come on boy, get your wife some lovely perfume! she's sure to--"

"What?!" Vaan yelped. "We're not married!"

Penelo tried hard to supress a snicker at the look of wide-eyed panic on his face.

"This happens every time," he grumbled as Penelo ignored them both and wove her way through the rest of the bazaar to the vendor she was looking for.

"Ah! Miss Penelo!" the Guild Merchant at the bazzar greeted her, knowing her by face. "Come to sell your goods?"

"Yes thank you," she said politley. Her mother had always told her that politeness cost nothing and could often yeild unexpected rewards.

Vaan proudly hefted the great bulking sack form thier last run from off his back and started unloading the pouches they used to separate out the goods for easy selling. As usual, they had a large number of the different magicites, mostly wind and water this time. They'd also spent a good deal of time underground to there were bones and strips of rotting, maggot-infested flesh and other nasties that Penelo point blank refused to touch. Some fangs and vials of blood as well as vials of yellow and green goo that they'd picked up from a swarm of jellies. There was some armor, low grade but sell-able. A few daggers, a bent staff and other bits and ends. They didn't bother haggling over the price of the goods, there was a certain tacit standard to these things that everyone who was in the game was aware of. The merchant simply paid the price for thier goods and swept them all away to the locked box under his counter.

"Do you have anything new?" Vaan asked eagerly. The merchant chuckled and said

"Not since the last time you two came through here."

"I was wondering if you had any information on that new technik that's supposedly on sale here in Dalmasca," Vaan said next, always with an ear to information (those Archadians were a bad influence on him).

"I've had a few buyers through here talk about it," he admitted.

"What'd they say?" Penelo asked curiously.

"It's useful," he said reflexively. "Not a must-have skill by any means, though it comes in handy down in the dark. It cuts the cost of the Holy spell down by fifteen percent."

Penelo's eyes widened in appreciation.

"Forget Vaan! I want it!"

Hey!" Vaan said, a little miffed. "I use magic too."

"When you're not hacking and bashing away with that sword of yours," Penelo argued back.

"Hey, that hack and bash is a good way to kill feinds, and magic doesn't always work y'know," he reposted without heat. It was a long worn "argument" between them over which was better, brute force or magic. They both knew very well that each had thier strengths and weaknesses when it came to fighting in a battle but that didn't stop them from tugging hte other pony-tails about it every now and again.

"You're just jealous because you can't keep track of your feinds and their weaknesses like I can," Penelo teased.

They continued to argue good-naturedly on the way back to what they had come to call The Run, which was, the place that sold all the magics, techniks, weapons and armor in Rabanastre.

As usual they played rock, knife, scroll for which shop they visited first; Yugris Magics or the weapons and armor place. Vaan won this time and they spent the next half a sun-mark examining weapons and armor they'd long since grown out of. They did manage to find one nice peice of armor, brought in by a trader from Rozzaria, a peice of Mystic Armor called a cloudsteel jerkin and Vann thought it might be nice to upgrade Penelo with it but she pointed to the price and said it could wait. He did find himself a nice new two-handed sword and bought that, then at last it was on to the Techniks place to pick up that tecknic. The vendor knew Vaan by face there, for Vaan knew all of the teckniks and when they walked in the man was all smiles.

"Ah! Vaan! I was wondering when you'd show up here! Come, come, I've set aside a scroll just for you and your lovely partner."

Apparently Vaan and Penelo were considered a matched set along The Run. Penelo couldn't blame them, most people knew that wherever Vaan led, Penelo could not be too far behind. It had been like that ever since they'd been little kids. They were even sky pirates together.

They bought thier technik and agreed that they could hardly wait to try it out. There would be plenty of undead that would feel the wrath of Penelo's Holy in the Necrohol and the Deadlands.

Next it was a little pitstop at Migello's Potions Emporium to stock up on potions and other neccessaries. They often genererously used their airship to play merchant for thier old friend and caretaker; nipping on up to Archades to purchase mega- potions from a little-known vendor there and bringing the rare items back to Migelo to sell (at half-again the price). Despite the inflation for importation, the potions always sold very well and he was usually out by the time Vaan and Penelo made it back for a visit.

"Vann! Penelo! How're my two favorite sky pirates doing this day!" Migello boomed out jovially as soon as he caught sight of them browsing through the familiar merchandice.

"Hey!" Penello called cheerfully, while Vaan waved from over her shoulder.

"Did ya bring me any--"

"Right here!" Penelo held the basket with three pouches stuffed full of mega-potions before her.

"That's my girl!" Migello smiled, eying the bounty and rubbing his hands together. "How much do I owe you?"

"Not a clipped gil!" Penelo said, sounding offended (as she always did) that Migello offered to pay.

He'd given her a job when no other vendor (besides the untrustworthy and unsavory) would look twice at her... for a position as a shopclerk that is, they'd offered to interveiw her for other positions but that wasn't the kind of work that a respectable girl went for. There were often limited employment opportunities for orphan girls, especially ones that lived in Lowtown. She'd be grateful to Migello for the rest of her days for offering her and others like her the chance to better themselves.

"Come now girl," he said, in a stern fatherly voice. "These potions don't come cheap, I know. At least allow me to reimburse you for your troubles."

"Maybe we should listen--" Vaan started but was cut off by Penelo elbowing him sharply in the ribs and glaring one of her rare glares at him. His jaw shut with an almost audible snap. Penello rarely got angry or offended but Vaan, dense as he could be sometimes, knew better than to push it.

"I know an alchemist in Archades that gives me a good deal," she said surruptiously stepping on Vaan's foot before her could say that they always went to a shop to buy them at market price.

"Well then," Migello said reluctantly. "I can see there will be no changing your mind."

"Absolutely none," she assured him. "But if you really want to pay me back--"

"Pay it forward," he finished, his grumble laced with pride and affection. Migello looked at all the orphans he took in, even the ones that didn't turn out so well, as a sort of odd extended family of his own, and he was inordinately proud and fond of his two kids Penelo and Vaan, heroes of fortune.

The two of them spent to remainder of the afternoon mostly loafing around Dalmasca, buying their favorite foods from roadside vendors, paying little orphan kids to tell them rumors and stories of Dalmasca's history (because they knew that thier coins could bring those kids some supper) and swapping tales with storytellers of far off places they'd been and feinds and marks they'd taken down. Vaan would usually tell the story, with Penelo adding corrections when he began to stray too far off the path of truth.

Their day ended at thier favorite spot, a bridge that looked out over a panoramic veiw of the city of Dalmasca, thier home. They sat on the stone banister with thier legs hanging out over the side and watched the sun set over the towers of the Royal Palace. She and Vaan had often come here together as children, dreaming of what it might be like to be rich and live in a palace like thier princess, Vaan would sometimes think of being a brave knight like his big brother Reks was going to be, and protect the crown. This was before he'd gotten the idea to become a sky pirate, and it had been just the two of them playing in the streets together, Vaan often leading her into all sorts of trouble. Some things never changed.

"Hey... Penelo?" he asked into the silence, his tone sounded somewhat hesitant, which was unusual for him. Vaan was not the sort to be hesitant, rather too much the reverse being true; he'd rush headlong into danger regardless of consequences because it sounded like fun and he was curious. He was always rushing around the next bend in the road, and Penelo was always behind him to make sure that they had enough supplies to make the journey.

"Yes?" she asked curiously, glancing at him from the corner of her eye as the sky darkened from pale gold to orange and magenta.

"We've been friends for a long time, right?" he asked.

"Since we were little," she confirmed, wondering a bit where this was going.

"You, um... You've always been a good friend, y'know?" he said, sounding awkward.

"I'd like to think so," she said, smiling. "Who else is going to keep you out of trouble, or at least try to. I don't think ther'll ever really be any keeping you completely out of trouble. But that's okay too, life is never dull, and I've had a good time and made new friends and seen places that I wouldn't ever have gotten to see if I'd just stayed a shop girl on Dalmasca. You've really broadened my world, Vaan."

"That's good," he said, sounding relieved. "I was a little bit worried."

Penelo cocked her head to one side, and looked at him in perplexity.

"Worried? About what?"

"Worried that maybe you weren't as happy traveling with me as you said you were," he said a little reluctantly. "You always seemed content before just working for Migello here in Dalmasca, and really it's my fault you were dragged along with me and Balthier and Basch and the others in the first place, getting kidnapped by those three Bangaa."

"I wouldn't change a thing," she assured him. "I learned new skills that I didn't know I had the talent for. I wouldn't have discovered my magic if not for the events that followed me following you around. And like I told you earlier, I won't let you leave me behind."

"I wouldn't," he said quietly. "Who else is going to keep me from getting in over my head?"

She just smiled brightly back at him.

Authors Note

I dunno if I should continue this or not, I set it up as a beginning chapter but it kind of stands up well on its own as a sort of "this is what an average day in the life of Vaan and Penelo would be like" after the end. I was thinking about the meeting with "Amalia" being one that would send them on a top-secret spy mission into Rozzario or something like that, anyone who wants to reveiw with suggestions and input is more than welcome to (encouraged to, in fact). On a side note, I'd just like to say that I absolutely love Final Fantasy 12, it's knocked all other games out of the running for the top spot on my favorites list. It's the best game ever!

Please reveiw. 


End file.
